Birthday Cupcakes

It was my husband’s birthday yesterday. I seem to be making a lot more cakes lately due to TWD etc, so instead of one great big cake I decided to make some cupcakes so at least we can freeze the ones we don’t eat. My husband loves sweet things but also enjoys the illusion of healthy sweet things!! That is he chooses cakes and slices with fruit in them on the basis that they are the healthy option as opposed to something chocolate! So on the pretence of making him healthy cupcakes, I made him apple and walnut spice cakes, adapting a Julie Le Clerc recipe for apple caramel cake.



Actually, the ingredients in these cakes are not too different from a muffin. It is a fairly dense mixture though and I almost added some milk, but quite liked the almost pudding texture the dense mix gave. I used walnuts but you could also use pecans or hazelnuts and if you like dried fruit you could add sultanas or raisins (I don’t so I didn’t!).



I iced the cupcakes with cream cheese icing to which I added a teaspoon of Heliala vanilla paste. I love the little vanilla flecks! I then drizzled the icing with a simple caramel sauce – not so healthy after all!

These cakes are very yummy. You could leave the icing off and serve them warm with custard or even with whipped cream and more of the caramel sauce.



Apple and Walnut Spice Cakes (adapted from Julie Le Clerc recipe)

100ml rice bran oil
1 egg
½ c sugar
½ tsp vanilla
1 c flour
½ tsp each of cinnamon and mixed spice
¼ tsp baking soda
1 apple, peeled, cored and diced
¼ c toasted walnuts, chopped

· Beat together oil, egg, sugar and vanilla.
· Stir in remainder of ingredients and then spoon into cupcake cases (I made 9 cakes)
· Bake at 170c for 18 minutes
When cold, ice with cream cheese frosting and drizzle with caramel sauce made by combining ¼ s brown sugar, 25g butter and ¼ c cream over a low heat until sugar dissolves, then simmer for 3-5 minutes